Medical professionals may wish to provide patients with respiratory assistance in the form of supplemental oxygen or airflow for many reasons in ICU (intensive care unit), other hospital, or home environments. Different types of interfaces for supplying gases to patients are available. For example, various nasal masks, full face masks, oral interfaces, nasal pillows, and nasal cannula interfaces exist. Nasal cannula interfaces typically include two nasal prongs that are placed in the patient's nostrils to deliver gases to the patient.
Nasal cannula assemblies generally consist of entry tubing, either symmetric or single sided that lies across the upper lip. Protruding from this tubing are open ended prongs which extend into the nares of the patient to deliver oxygen. Nasal cannula have the advantage of being more comfortable and acceptable than a face mask to most patients. A single flow entry nasal cannula has the advantage of being unobtrusive, and may be more relevant to delivering humidity than a dual flow entry style of nasal cannula, due to the advantage of flow rates and surface area for heat loss. A single flow entry however is provided at one side of the cannula, the left or the right side. If the tube is on the left side for example, the user has difficulty in use if the flow source is on the opposite or right side of the user requiring longer lengths of tubing and causing the tube to cross the body.
When providing humidified gases to a patient it is common to use a heated breathing circuit (tubing). This circuit is heavy and can drag and pull on the patient interface. It is common to use a short flexible tube between the heated circuit and patient interface to reduce any torque or twisting. In order to stop the weight pulling on the patient interface, circuit hangers are occasionally used. This is a large extendable metal arm to take the weight. It also has been known in the art to clip part of the tubing to the patient's clothes or bedclothes. Both of these solutions have been found to be quite unsuitable for mobile patients especially when sleeping and turning in bed.
With patient interfaces such as nasal cannula the stability of the nasal prongs on the face is very important, as movement of the prongs within the nares can cause severe irritation. Current methods employed to retain a single entry nasal cannula on the face use a simple elastic band of material around the back of the patients head. This is prone to rotating the nasal cannula relative to the patient's head especially when turning ones head on a pillow. This rotation causes the prongs move within the nares, irritating this sensitive area.
In this specification where reference has been made to patent specifications, other external documents, or other sources of information, this is generally for the purpose of providing a context for discussing the features of the invention. Unless specifically stated otherwise, reference to such external documents is not to be construed as an admission that such documents, or such sources of information, in any jurisdiction, are prior art, or form part of the common general knowledge in the art.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved nasal cannula assembly or patient interface headgear, or to at least provide the public with a useful choice.